Love and Compassion; A Reflection for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Love. Love has been overused a lot in our culture. It has long steered away from how God defined what is true definition of this theological virtue. Recall these words from Christ, “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18).

Even Christ would later say before his passion and death, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13).

In the readings for the 30th Sunday or Ordinary Time, we are given reminders of how to love. First, he tells us to love God with our body, heart, mind, and soul. Second, we must love our neighbors.

The Ten Commandments breaks it down perfectly. The first three are for how to love God. The other seven gives us a guide to how to love not just our neighbors but our enemies.

For us, this is our way to get to heaven. Even St. Therese of Lisieux recognized that each Catholic has a vocation to love.

Today our culture has come up with woke definitions of love in the guise of “hate has no place here”, “Love trumps hate”, and my favorite, “Love is love”. The problem is that these messages only cater to one group of people while making hypocrites of themselves towards another.

Christ told us to love. He shows us the true definition of love when he died for our sins and that of the whole world.

So how can we truly show love? We show it through our actions. We love everyone not just a select few. We love every person because they are unique and unrepeatable. It is through love we show compassion to our neighbors and those that hate God because of our faithful witness.

To the mother with an unexpected pregnancy, you are loved.

To the person afflicted by suicidal thoughts or mental illness, you are loved.

To those that are seeking refuge from war, poverty, and even abuse, you are loved.  

To those who lost a loved one to illness, violence, or unexpectedly, you are loved.

Remember you are loved because God loved you first.

God is love.